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these glasses will cost you $600 they're
actually smart glasses called focal z'
made by the canadian startup north
vocals are meant for everyday use and
their main purpose to make you rely less
on having to pull out your phone
but these provide you notifications and
other information right in front of your
face just like smart phones but faster
and arguably more convenient but is it
really as good as it seems I wanted to
see if smart glasses really will replace
a smart phone or if it's just all hype
watch out New York alex has a pair of
smart glasses so how do they work
there's a holographic display on the
right lens that shows notifications and
information directly from your phone
this is all controlled by a small ring
called the loop which allows you to
navigate and interact with your display
all via bluetooth the idea was what can
we create that could be part of your
everyday life and seamlessly fit into
your life and give you all of those
benefits of being connected to the world
from the home screen alone I could check
the time weather
messages calendar notifications
locations and even my battery life
pretty much everything I could check on
my phone well maybe not everything just
the things I want to know right away
it even has Alexa integrated into the
glasses so you can ask Alexa questions
through the built-in mic and speaker
vocals can even let you call an uber
you better believe we tried all these
features along the way
first stop getting fitted
at North showroom in Brooklyn they
custom fitted me and even gave me a
quick demo of what I would experience
when wearing them a pretty unique sizing
process measuring my head size with
between my eyes and other measurements
to make sure the hologram would
perfectly align with my eyes the crazy
part is they are just made for me
so no one else could see the hologram
displays while wearing my glasses here
little beads I'm right here but they're
not looking in the right place after a
few weeks my glasses were ready to be
picked up and sized for my final fitting
I just got that it is officially day one
of me wearing my focal smart glasses I'm
heading into the office and mostly going
to be sitting on my desk during the day
just kind of performing simple daily
tasks I'm going to just try and get used
to the look in the feel of these and see
how my first day goes I wanted to take
my vocals a step further today I figured
it's day one why not so I tried out the
GPS feature to get me from my apartment
to the pass station Alexa how do I get
to the Hoboken pass station
it's kind of neat having each step pop
up and then it will go away in about
five seconds so it's not very
distracting if I'm walking or crossing
the street and at one point I
intentionally wanted to make a wrong
turn to see if it would reroute me and
it didn't so that was like a little
disappointing and kind of shows that
their GPS is not so accurate I'm used to
wearing glasses I do wear them on a
daily basis but after wearing these
vocals for a full day my eyes do seem
more tired Alexa what's the weather
today in Hoboken it's six degrees
Fahrenheit with clear skies
I just got to the office and I'm going
to put my phone down for the day
and just rely on my smart glasses I was
already informed that when I'm sending a
voice to text message to one of my
contacts a different number will appear
when they receive the message okay so I
did pick up my phone just because I
posted an Instagram story but no more
phone today I can't help it if my
glasses don't let me check social media
they warned my eyes took a while to get
adjusted to the focus at times they felt
heavy slid down my nose became loose and
I even had to get them refitted as my
week went on the holographic display was
very out of focus and even glitchy at
times I even lost a nose pad which kind
of threw off all the display and I
couldn't really see anything so I ended
up going back to the store to get them
realigned and tightened to fit my face
let's just say day four was the true
test when I tried calling an uber right
from my vocals hey Street subway station
I have the option to walk or convert and
we're going first six minutes away and
eight dollars looking for a ride there's
a little complicated ordering the uber
for my vocals I did have to bring out my
phone just to kind of see some of the
notifications for when my drivers
arriving it's kind of neat it is giving
me updates throughout my ride and it's
saying I'm three minutes away from my
destination I tried texting and
responding more and even using my
calendar with the glasses schedule a
meeting for tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. I ran
some errands and asked Alexa to guide me
to the local grocery store which again
wasn't an easy navigating experience
before I knew it my journey into the
future of tech had come to an end after
a full week of wearing my vocals here
are my final thoughts as for the comfort
and fit of the focal they were really
uncomfortable at times they felt even
heavy and they would slide down my nose
tried to kind of keep pushing them back
up and just really bulky on the sides
Alexa was not very effective when I was
in a loud or noisy environment she
couldn't easily connect and understand
the commands that I was asking her this
just became really frustrating sometimes
and I wanted to just pick up my phone
the holographic display wasn't super
clear and easy to see in the Sun so I
often used my son clips as for the loop
it died a lot faster than the focal x'
and that could have just been because I
was navigating most of the time with the
loop
but the good part was I was able to get
all my notifications on my vocals and I
was a lot more hands-free and relied a
lot less on my phone
North has a lot of great features so far
and they have a lot more to kind of grow
and integrate into these vocals but it
would be nice if I could play my music
on them maybe even pick up a phone call
and watch some videos since trying them
out North has added a few new features
like music controls and transit updates
to the focus but it's going to take a
lot more than telling it to skip to the
next song before it's a must-have device
my overall rating for the focal x' would
be 3 out of 5 personally I did not find
them to be an ideal everyday wearable
I'm not really a techy person but it was
a really nice challenge to wear these
smart glasses for a week and step into
the future I also responded to what is
this what is this hey